Q2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Media Coursework Evaluation

• I think that my photo’s in the magazine is similar in representation to those in Kerrang!. Considering facial expressions, as it is ranged from perhaps shouting or expressive facial expressions for people in their teens - 20’s, and these expressions are more common to male rock stars. Smiling / serious faces when it comes to people in older ages such as 30’s more often . I tried to incorporate some of these expressions within social groups. The person in the cover has his eyes wide open, connoting an extreme expression, and he is of a young age. I made the facial expression of a young musician in the contents page very extreme as well, so the audiences get the representation that people as young as him are very energetic and perhaps, out of control. I also realised that in most of their magazine covers, they featured somewhere, a woman singer/musician/writer, although most of the stories were those of male stars. By doing this, they represent both genders as equal, and connotes that both genders are welcome as audiences. This, I did not think about when taking images, because nearly all of my images are of males. But because of this, there may be more male target audiences buying my magazine than females, or perhaps if females are looking for male stars that they like, it may serve their entertainment.

• The facial expression of the main image on front cover, is similar to those of Kerrang!’s. For example, in one of the magazine covers, although the facial expression of a rock star is serious, his eyes are open quite widely, with an unusual body language. This may represent the mysteriousness of middle-aged people, but wanting to be found/have attention somewhere inside. Therefore for my magazine cover, although the model is still in his teenage, his facial expression is very similar to the Kerrang magazine cover model. This is to show the audience, the maturity of the star as well as the sense of humour that he has. This kind of personality attracts audiences, especially those who seek an inspiration or perhaps, escapism.

• Hair style wise, both my model and Kerrang’s model’s hair is quite long, as perhaps this is the stereotype of a rock star. On the other hand, the same model in my dps has short hair, but resembling those of old rock n roll stars. This may represent him as being very fashionable as well as being able to fit into any era’s- therefore timeless, because the two contrasting hair styles get’s across to the audiences as no matter how the looks change, this star is still who he is. Therefore these images which represents teenage groups, can be informative for some audiences.

• The shot type and angle plays a vital part in my representation of artists. For example, in my magazine cover, the main image is a low angle shot, which makes the model look superior or more like a rock star. This shot angle was perfect to make him look like he is a talented musician, as well as representing him as having an unusual type of an open character, as I explained above before. For the shot type I chose a medium long shot, in order to represent him as being tall / to show to the consumers, how he handles guitars, which helps to illustrate his talent in music at the same time. For my contents page, there are two images of close-ups, contrasting in shot angles as the younger boy has a slight low angle shot, showing that again he is out of control, and at the bottom, the feature model with a mocking-sort of serious facial expression, at eye-level. This may represent who is suitable for this magazine, as younger age is represented as being extreme, as I mentioned earlier. But at the same time, younger aged people know about entertainment, or perhaps better at entertaining others. Therefore the audience may expect these people to be humourous, or entertaining in the magazine. However the second close-up image is at eye-level, which may connote that teen-aged people are perhaps treated as an equal or that the model himself is mature enough to be respected. For the dps, I chose to use a close-up image of the same model because the audiences will then focus on his facial expression, and wonder what he is thinking about, being encouraged to read the article. It is also iin a little bit of a high angle, in order to clearly capture his hair style and his facial expression.

• Originally the model on the cover had quite a high key lighting, but I turned down a little bit in order to fit to the environment, as well as not making it appear too high quality because this is a magazine in older days, in the 1990’s. None of my images are very low key lighting, except possibly the one with the two boys and a piano. It is low key because I wanted to represent the scene as being secretive, or to communicate that they are preparing or hiding something. This will increase the curiosity of the audiences, as well as reminding them that a surprise from children is always something to look forward to, seen in the boys’ facial expressions.. The image in my dps is not of a too low key lighting, but it helps to enhance the text around the image, and to have a good balance of the image serving as a background, as well as a Centre of Visual Interest at the same time.

• The choice of costumes had an effect in the representation of the featured artists. The artist in the main image in the cover is wearing a black leather jacket, although not very noticeable. This sort of jackets represents rebelling, or perhaps a self-centered character. However, it may also represent the capabilities of not going against one’s own will and being strong mentally. As I mentioned before, audiences who are seeking help or escapism is perhaps attracted to these sort of representation. On the other hand, the choice of costume in the dps of the same person, is similar but a little bit more casual. This represents that stars are still people too, and makes the audiences feel as if they are a part of something. Some may even relate to this costume, and feel like a rock musician themselves. So the choice of costume leads perhaps to audience satisfaction.

Q3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product

and why?

• My music magazine is an old 80/90’s rock n roll genre. Although this is targeted towards both teenagers and people up to their 40’s, because of the content it is most likely to call appeal to those in the older generations. Therefore, in terms of locations, US would be the best, but in the UK, music shops or even Tesco’s/WHSmiths in London would be good because the music genre is quite popular and famous, and these sort of shops are the most popular markets that all sorts of people go to. As my target audiences is quite a range, I think it would be suitable. in terms of shops, places like ‘Guitar guitar’ has shops all over the UK, and that would be suitable as well because there are going to be a range from teens to adult consumers coming to the shop, and there are lots of scores of old rock n roll music, so the shop is targeting those who like this genre of music. However, they don’t sell magazines so it’s not going to be that easy.

• Digital technology is going to take part in my distribution, because I know that although stereotypically older generations (40’s/50’s) don’t use the internet as much as the teenagers nowadays, actually 78% of those aged 30-49 does use social networking, and 90% of those aged 18 - 29 uses it also. Therefore, there is no way that the internet and social networking would not play a large part in the distribution of my magazine. Other than social networking sites such as facebook and twitter, if I had the money I may create an app for the magazine for iphones, because mobile phones became an important part of people’s lives, and apple’s iphone 5s/5c is currently the most bought and popular phone types in the UK. However, it would cost me from around £297 - over £5000 to create an iphone app. I could even create a digital magazine instead of a print. For the availability of the magazine, I think it’s a good idea to keep it fortnightly or monthly because the consumers will develop hopefully a habit of buying the magazine, as well as having time to gather more news and information to put into the magazine, creating a high quality content as a result. In this way, the consumers will wonder what’s going to be on next in the magazine too.

• Institution wise, I think publishers who does not already have an old-rock n roll genre magazine would be ideal. Bauer Media, which is also a publisher of Kerrang, as well as the owner of a radio station: Magic 105.4, who streams old rock/pop music. This publisher already has quite a few rock genre magazines, such as: ‘Q’ and ‘MOJO’, as well as Kerrang!. However, both Q and Mojo magazine has contemporary information about contemporary bands, whereas my information is trying to dig out old information and improve it, as well as some new information on new bands. Also considering that Bauer Media already has Kerrang!, it’s not a good idea to publish through this institution. Therefore publishers such as Future PLC would be good, because I can make full use of tablets and smartphones as well as selling my magazine through print. This institution does sell music magazines, but it does not have any of the sort like a rock n roll music magazine. It only has a drumming and a guitar magazine. Therefore, there is a chance that my magazine would stand out through this publisher. Also, IPC media publishes magazines through different platforms including prints, and this publisher is well known. As there are no other music magazines here that has an oldie-content like mine, it also may be an ideal publisher.